Swans and Klons
Swans and Klons
Nora Olsen
Bold Strokes Books (2013)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: Romance, Young Adult, Gay
Romancettt Young Adultttt Gayttt
What does it take to survive in a world built on lies?
Sixteen-year-old Rubric loves her pampered life in the Academy dormitory. She’s dating Salmon Jo, a brilliant and unpredictable girl. In their all-female world, non-human slaves called Klons do all the work. But when Rubric and Salmon Jo break into the laboratory where human and Klon babies are grown in vats, they uncover a terrifying secret that tears their idyllic world apart.
Their friends won’t believe them, and their teachers won’t help them. The Doctors who rule Society want to silence Rubric and Salmon Jo. The two girls must flee for their lives. As they face the unthinkable, the only thing they have left to believe in is their love for each other.
Table of Contents
Soliloquy Titles From Bold Strokes Books
Synopsis
What does it take to survive in a world built on lies?
Sixteen-year-old Rubric loves her pampered life in the Academy dormitory. She’s dating Salmon Jo, a brilliant and unpredictable girl. In their all-female world, non-human slaves called Klons do all the work. But when Rubric and Salmon Jo break into the laboratory where human and Klon babies are grown in vats, they uncover a terrifying secret that tears their idyllic world apart.
Their friends won’t believe them, and their teachers won’t help them. The Doctors who rule Society want to silence Rubric and Salmon Jo. The two girls must flee for their lives. As they face the unthinkable, the only thing they have left to believe in is their love for each other.
Swans & Klons
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Swans & Klons
© 2013 By Nora Olsen. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-913-8
This Electronic Book is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, New York 12185
First Edition: May 2013
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editor: Ruth Sternglantz
Production Design: Susan Ramundo
Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the amazing Lev Olsen, Sondra Spatt Olsen, and Ara Hale Burklund, who took the time to read the manuscript and gave me great feedback. Thanks to Crystal Malarsky Laffan, as well as Mark Eastburn and the other writers in our March 2010 SCBWI NJ conference critique group. And thanks to Frances Hogg Lochow, Brian Higley, Simon Verkhovsky, Alpha S., Anita Merando, and Olive for reading many chapters in our old writers group.
Thanks to everyone at Bold Strokes Books, especially: my terrific editor, Ruth Sternglantz; Radclyffe, for bringing me into the family; Cindy Cresap, Sandy Lowe, Connie Ward, and Kim Baldwin for all your help.
Thanks also to Kelly Kingman for helping me with my query letter, Chris Prestia for your excellent advice, and Steve Berman. Rebecca Dingler, and Amy Estrada for being great 2009 NaNoWriMo MLs in the Poughkeepsie region, and Chris Baty for inventing National Novel Writing Month in the first place. Thanks to Daniel Rutter of http://www.howtospotapsychopath.com and commenter corinoco for your inspiring online discussion of airships.
Thanks to writers Nicola Griffith, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Jane Fletcher —you light the way for the rest of us. And to Adam Rex for these profound words from
The True Meaning of Smekday
, “Everybodies always is wanting to make a clone for to doing their work. If you are not wanting to do your work, why would a clone of you want to do your work?”
Above all, thanks to Áine Ní Cheallaigh, the best girlfriend anyone could ever dream of.
Dedication
For my mother, Sondra Spatt Olsen
Chapter One
She knew it was childish, but sometimes Rubric still wanted to spend time with her Nanny Klon. She stood in Nanny Klon’s windowless room in Yellow Dorm, waiting for her to get back. The bed was folded into the wall, so there wasn’t even a place to sit down.
A drawer that wasn’t closed all the way caught Rubric’s eye. Her Jeepie Type was well known for being obsessed with order and symmetry. She tried to close it and found a flat, crinkly object sticking out. It felt almost like a leaf, but it looked like something woman-made. Then she saw writing on it and realized it was a piece of paper, like from the olden days.
Rubric found everything about historic times rather disgusting. She tried to appreciate ancient literature by Brontë and Rowling and people like that, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that all those people used to have fetuses inside their bodies—
pregnancies
—and then
gave birth
. Gross, gross, gross! Also she found it hard to relate to the male characters—the
men
.
She examined the writing scrawled across the piece of paper. She had never known that Klons were capable of reading. But there was no reason they shouldn’t be. Klons weren’t thicko, they just weren’t human.
The paper read:
Dear Bloom,
I don’t know when I will ever see you again. Try your best to write back. The Milk Delivery Klon said she doesn’t mind carrying messages. I miss you so much, but I’m trying to pay attention to my new assignment.
She skipped to the bottom:
My love forever,
Shine
She folded it and put it back. The drawer was crammed with other papers. Rubric wondered why Nanny Klon was saving these people’s messages. Just as she shut the drawer carefully, Nanny Klon returned.
“Rubric, my pet!” Nanny Klon opened her big arms and Rubric went in for a hug. Nanny Klon had once told Rubric that she had to drink a flagon of fat with each meal and one at bedtime to keep her body at the optimal level of soft and comforting, because Nanny Klon’s Jeepie Type tended toward thinness. The Doctors believed that teenagers responded better to Nanny Klons who were plump. When Rubric was younger, she used to buy peppermint oil for Nanny Klon to make her flagons of fat taste more palatable, but she hadn’t thought of such a thing in a long time.
“Now, how’s that schatzie of yours?” Nanny Klon asked, releasing her.
“Salmon Jo’s fine,” Rubric said.
Nanny Klon sighed. “First love,” she said. “I’ve seen so many girls falling in love for the first time while they were living in Yellow Dorm. Now, I know you didn’t just come here to say hello to me. What’s on your mind?”
“Tomorrow’s the day we’re going to be matched with our Jeepie Similar mentors,” Rubric told her. “I’m really worried about who I’m going to get.”
“You’ll be paired with someone very creative,” Nanny Klon said. “Just like you.”
“Yeah, I know that,” Rubric said. “But I wonder who, specifically. I’ve been looking up people in the city for months, looking for people who look like my Jeepie Similars. And there’s this artist. Her name is Stencil Pavlina. Have you heard of her?”
Nanny Klon shook her head. Rubric wasn’t surprised. Klons didn’t know about art or anything else that was really important.